Starting our Homestudy!

Our second adoption just seems to be going so fast for us! We sent Holt our initial application on Sunday, January 27th and heard that we were given approval to begin the process on Tuesday, January 29th. We were surprised to get a call only two days later!

It took us until March 24th to complete all of the homestudy paperwork. (This is mostly all of the paperwork required to adopt from Korea since there is no dossier process for this program.) The paperwork included questions about our respective childhoods and our parenting styles, physicals, an FBI background check, sex offender check, birth certificates, etc. Sara's parents had to watch Aaron one Friday night into Saturday morning for us to get enough time to complete everything. Thanks, Mom and Dad!!

We completed our first 4 classes of Adoptive Parent Training on April 4th and 5th. It was fun to meet so many other couples who were adopting from Korea through Holt. It was an interesting class because the students all had so much experience with adoption related issues. Our class included students who were adoptees themselves, 2 couples (including us) who had adopted previously, a couple in which the husband had adopted siblings, and a woman who grew up in India who married an American man (She was able to provide some insight into living in a new culture). All of us could have practically hosted the class ourselves once we combined all of our unique experiences!!! We were able to attend this class because Chip's parents watched Aaron while we attended. Thanks, Mom and Dad!!

Tomorrow we officially begin our homestudy. We will most likely have two homestudy meetings, one this Thursday and one the following Thursday. It amazes me to think that we are already this far along in the process! I told Chip tonight that I wanted to begin thinking about decorating another nursery!! Yea!

We are so blessed that God chose us to be parents through adoption. It was His plan for us all along and we feel amazed to see what joy and fulfillment it brings to our lives. God chose Aaron as a perfect fit for our family and we can't wait to see who the new addition will be!

I would guess we may get a referral another year from now or so. We'll keep you all updated as we know more!